Empathic Dissonance
by TheDarkFlygon
Summary: Serena is trying her best to make her duo work one way or the other, but Shun's having none of it. [Canon divergence, oneshot].


"Don't you _fucking dare_ pity me!"

His words are harsh, piercing through her attempt at a monologue like a spear through a papier mâché cast. She's trying to reason him, but it's clearly not working, and the way he presses the wounds against his chest don't reassure her. Not that she isn't injured either, as she's taken some hits, but that's besides the point.

"Kurosaki, that's… That's not what I meant to do!"

"You don't even know what my people's gone through! Don't you dare look at me like I'm some defenceless chick who's fallen off the nest, I _know_ what I'm doing! We don't need someone from Fusion to tell us how poor we are when Fusion's the reason this madness started to begin with!"

He's furious, she can sense it from his tone alone, the words are just giving him a reason to be this infuriated. He's spitting out all of his anger at her, and some blood with it. She doesn't know what to say: she's never been a smooth talker. How's she supposed to have him calm down so they don't get killed?

"I see it in your eyes! That _stare_ who's trying to empathize with something you can't relate to! Have you been tracked down night and day, wondering if you were gonna see the sun rise again, if there even was a point to all this _misery_?! Have you contemplated ending it right here and there because there was nothing better to come?!"

"No."

Her sudden response interrupts his flow like a barrage in the middle of a tempestuous river.

"No. I haven't been through the same experience as you, Kurosaki. Frankly, I wish it on nobody, not even my worse enemy. I'm not pretending like I can anyway, because I'll never be able to relate. I've been luckier than you, this much I'll admit."

Serena takes a breath. In truth, she wants to cry; but crying in front of a warrior like Kurosaki is likely to anger him even further, which they really don't _need_ right now considering he's _bleeding out_, they're both injured and exhausted, and this is where they're supposed to rest so she can do something about _that wound_ he's _insisted_ on _not feeling_.

"I just want us…" To _get along_? That sounds _cheesy_. "Never mind. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry for representing what you've been through. I can't pretend like I know how hard it is, but I'm certain it is."

They stare at each other in silence. She swallows her tears, he gulps down some of his anger, breathing finally evening out.

"I know you don't want to be pitied by someone like me, someone who's from the enemy's side." She looks at his calloused hands, then back at her smooth ones. "I've never known war until recently. I'm not a warrior like you are; yet I know warriors hate pity, because I've been raised along them, like the orphan I've always been. But, even knowing that… I still try to sympathize. I just don't want to see you like this, in pain from all meanings of the term, wallowing in your misery. This isn't how you'll fix anything."

She has to show herself as strong, so she has to hurt him in some way. She simply didn't expect the thought of doing that to hurt this badly.

"You'll have to open yourself to others if you want to save Ruri."

She also doesn't expect him to almost kneel to the ground, eyes almost rolling back in their sockets, until he catches himself on the wall and glides against that instead.

Serena doesn't think: she rushes to him, already getting out her first-response materials from her pouch. He doesn't look as angry as he is pained, so she uses the commotion and his general confusion to both of their advantages, taking this opportunity to check on his wound. It's less deep that she thought it'd be, making her sigh in relief, as it's a mere slash that he's just let fester around. To be fair, they had to run away from soldiers, so it wasn't like he could have stopped and put some bandages on that cut. Still, neither of them wants to let that get infected – the lessons she's gotten on that were scary enough for her not to see that happen – so she quickly patches it up as well as she can.

"Why? Why the hell are you doing this, Serena?" He asks in a much lower tone, as if his voice doesn't want to rise.

"We're comrades."

"You're… you're serious?"

"Of course I am. Do I look like I'm kidding? What do you think I'm doing?"

"Fair enough."

She tears herself apart again to look at her bandage placement. It's a fairly pristine white against his bruised and scarred skin, but she tries not to let the embarrassment of having half-stripped a guy she wants to get along with get further inside of her than her ears and cheeks starting to burn spontaneously.

"Here you go", she says with a small smile of satisfaction. It's like seeing work well done, even if that's the least she could do for him.

"…thank you," he tells her, his tone still quieted down.

"It's nothing."

He's still upset, she can tell with how his hands twitch, but he seems calmed down enough for her to remain sitting in front of him. Still, when she tries to look into his eyes, he's the one who looks away until she feels two arms pull her against his chest and she doesn't know what to say or think about it all. The hell's happening? What's taking him all of a sudden

Still, she said they were comrades, so she's content staying there and trying to complete the weird embrace he's triggered, even if she has no answer to the questions starting to grow inside her mind like weed quickly appears in humid spaces after the rain.

Serena then remembers she reminds him of Ruri, and she guesses that's why he's hugging her so suddenly, the guy who must feel too lonely to even say it out loud and instead spits in the faces of whomever has a hunch on that theory. That's, however, only until he says this one thing that gives him away way more than he probably thinks.

"I… guess don't mind you, Serena," he whispers under his breath like a confession that he doesn't want to hear himself say.

Is this him admitting they are, indeed, comrades? She hopes it is, for them, for her, for _him_.

"I don't mind you either."

She may not be able to pity him for his trauma as a teenage soldier, but she can at least sympathize with his loneliness, the girl who's always been protected in a tower of ivory.


End file.
